Tips on Making the Most of Your Fall Listing
We’re officially smack dab in the middle of the fall season and are inching closer and closer to the holidays. While you’re busy making your list of ingredients for your holiday dinner and running around picking up gifts for your loved ones, there are plenty of things that need to be done if you’re planning to sell during this season.
Prepping your home for the market is always a critical component to a successful sale, but there are things you can do to tweak your home and it’s listing to cater specifically to autumn selling.
Gauge Your Market
While this suggestion is not necessarily dedicated solely for fall listings, it’s a critical one to mention nonetheless. Before you put your home up for sale in the fall, it’s imperative that you understand the current market in your area before you determine a listing price and come up with an appropriate marketing strategy.
Your real estate professional will be able to guide you through the listing and pricing process and will have their finger on the pulse of the local market in your area. From there, an appropriate listing price and marketing plan will be devised to ensure the right pool of buyers are targeted and a sale is made in a reasonable amount of time.
Make Any Necessary Repairs
Before you even list your home on the market, be sure to take some time to make any repairs that you’ve been putting off until now. As a homeowner, there are plenty of components that require regular maintenance throughout the year, such as changing the HVAC filters, cleaning the ducts, clearing out the gutters, and so forth. If you haven’t managed to stay on top of these, now’s the time to pay a little attention to them.
Make sure all the home’s major systems and appliances are in good working order. If not, you’ll need a professional to come in and bring them back up to par. Fix any leaky faucets, chipped tiles, and burned out light bulbs. Make sure your pool and/or hot tub are functioning properly and the water has been cleared of any debris.
Tend to Your Home’s Exterior
You’ve probably been too busy enjoying the summer holidays to bother spending too much time and effort tending to your home’s landscaping. Sure, you may have cut the grass and watered the flower beds, but what about the bushes, hedges, and trees? It’s highly likely that these could use a little trimming to keep them looking neat and tidy.
Once you’ve done that, take a look at your gutters to see if they’re clogged with leaves and other debris. If so, give them a good cleaning to make sure they don’t end up creating a water dam that could wind up causing water damage to your home. Rake all those leaves off the lawn, weed the grass, get rid of any loose sticks and twigs, and clear out the front yard of any garbage, kids’ toys, or any other items that should be tucked away.
Decorate With Autumn Accents and Colors
One of the best parts about the fall season is the bold, vibrant colors that are associated with it. Brilliant reds, vibrant yellows, and bright oranges can make any space look beautiful and feel welcoming, so be sure to embrace these hues when decorating and staging your home for the autumn market. Infuse these colors in flowers, throw pillows, candles, door wreaths, tablecloths, and any other accent piece you can think of.
Use Seasonal Aromas
Some people may be turned off by the potent aroma of scented candles, like vanilla or coconut. But for the fall months, you might be able to get away with some scented candles of the season. Stick to candles that bring in the aromas of sweet juniper trees, cinnamon spice, and warm apple pie.
If you want to go with something more natural, consider leaving cinnamon sticks in jars in various spots around your home, as well as clementines decorated in cloves for a fresh and pleasant scent that will easily waft throughout your home’s interior.
Lighten Up Your Home
As we near the end of the calendar year, the days continue to get shorter and shorter. With fewer daylight hours comes a lot more darkness, which doesn’t always fare well for a home that’s listed on the market.
What you want to do during this time of year is brighten up your home as much as you can. Open all the drapes, turn on all the lights, and use spotlights both inside and out. Don’t leave your home in darkness, and instead make good use of lights to make your home feel welcoming and showcase some of the best features of your home.
Extend Your Marketing Reach
Marketing to local buyers should always be part of a prudent marketing strategy, but you don’t have to limit yourself there. Consider broadening your reach of prospective buyers by targeting out-of-towners who may be looking to relocate to your neck of the woods.
Put together marketing materials that highlight all the great things about your area and your home to get as many eyes on your property as possible throughout the season before Christmas arrives.
Consider a Flexible Closing
Many buyers may want to close on a deal and move into their new home before the holiday season hits, so consider whether or not a fast closing is doable for you and your family.
On the other hand, some buyers may want to wait until well after the holiday season dies down before making a major move, even though they’ve decided to start house hunting early on. Either way, being flexible with your closing date can open the doors for you if it’s something that you can comfortably work out.
The Bottom Line
The fall can be a fantastic time to sell a home, as long as the proper measures are taken. At the end of the day, anything you can do to improve the look of your home and solidify a sound listing and marketing strategy can boost the odds of selling your home quickly and at the price point you’re aiming for.
